Continental Crosscurrents: British Criticism and European Art 1810-1910

by J.B. Bullen

Continental Crosscurrents is a series of case studies reflecting British attitudes to continental art during the nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries. It stresses the way in which the British went to the continent in their search for origins or their pursuit of sources of purity and originality. This cult of the primitive took many forms; it involved a reassessment of medieval German and Italian art and offered new ways of interpreting Venetian painting; it opened up new readings of architectural history and the 'discovery' of the Romanesque; it generated a debate about the value of returning to religious subjects in art; and it raised the question of the relationship between modern art and Byzantine art in the early twentieth century. J. B. Bullen's original study presents some exciting findings. Few critics have noticed how much in advance of his time was Coleridge's passion for medieval art;

308 pages, Hardcover

First published October 20, 2005